


an inch is a canyon.

by riskbreakered



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: F/M, travel snapshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-15 14:51:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13615683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/riskbreakered/pseuds/riskbreakered
Summary: Link visits Lover's Pond.





	an inch is a canyon.

Link decides to leave the village of Lurelin before dawn.

He's spent the past day helping how he _thinks_ a Hylian knight should -- a sentiment that's more driven by intuition than his few fragmented memories. He clears the nearby sandy stretch of beach of monsters, Calamity Ganon's infection spreading out to the very edges of Hyrule.

He tries to keep the fishermen safe and free to practice their craft. And in return, the villagers offer him a measure of their daily catch. He'll leave them for the road again, but he won't go hungry.

Link wakes that morning and breaks his fast on salt-grilled fish, picking gingerly with his fingers at the tiny slivers of bone. He packs away the rest of his gear, his bow, and the sword he'd taken from the bokoblin, and prepares to go on his way.

Once he steps outside the tiny village inn, he finds little to greet him but a cool, salty breeze coming in from the sea. He nods his head; it's just as well. He's not much for words and goodbyes. There is a statue of the goddess just outside the inn, however, and he spares a moment to acknowledge Her presence. 

A prayer for the path ahead.

He heads for the road that cuts between the shoreside cliffs. The sheikah slate on his hip is marked with his morning destination: a small pond located, so told to him by the Lurelin fishermen, just up towards the top.

In a way, Link concedes, it's a tourist attraction. A tale fed to travelers hungry for mystery and romance. Not something so useful to a (once) champion of the realm who is intent on vanquishing evil.

But that isn't stopping him from scaling up the cliffside either.

He hefts himself up to the top just as the sun begins to show its full face. The grass along the edges of the pond is thick and abundant and he plops down by the rim of the water. Fills his canteen, drinks, and fills again.

Once he's settled, Link reaches for the sheikah slate. Just as Purah had shown him how to do, he taps the device and pulls up the archive of the Princess's pictures. He goes over them carefully, though none have an image of this heart-shaped pond in their collection. 

But it doesn't settle the feeling in his chest at all. There doesn't seem to be a memory to place with the pond -- and he quietly sits and chides himself for thinking that Princess Zelda might have come here _with_ him...

Link takes a deep breath of cool air. He puts the sheikah slate away and tries to clear his mind. He looks down to his outstretched legs, and the flowers poking up from the grass around him. He touches one close to him, and remembers something else.

He turns to his travel bag instead and, sure enough, inside one of the pockets is a bundle of scrap cloth. He carefully unfolds the small bundle and plucks out a different type of flower. _Silent Princess_. A single, delicate bloom he'd plucked without thinking. Just another whim of intuition.

Link hefts himself up, looks along the pond's edge for a suitable spot. He sets the flower down on the flat face of a large stone, as some sort of personal mark of hope or maybe even a promise.

He stands by the pond for a moment more, gripping the straps of his travel bag and watching as the sun settles over the water in ripples of warm gold, before heading carefully back down the cliff to the traveler's road. 

Link has an important oath to keep.


End file.
